Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Sailor of the Month
Out on her own – Nicole Hemeryck in top form at the KBC Laser Youth Worlds in Dublin Bay in July.
With a 7th overall in the mega-large fleet at the KBC Laser Worlds in Dun Laoghaire in July followed by December’s 9th overall in World Sailing’s Aon Youth Sailing Worlds in Auckland, Nicole Hemeryck – who turned 18 in December…
When the going was good – Enda O’Coineen at an early stage of his Vendee Globe campaign
For months now, Enda O Coineen’s campaign in the Vendee Globe with the veteran IMOCA 60 Kilcullen Voyage has captured public imagination as the resilient 60-year-old lone sailor has battled the challenge of a lifetime in the most demanding sailing…
Supreme champion. 2016 winner Alex Barry holds aloft the historic silver salver with ISA President David Lovegrove (left) and RCYC Admiral John Roche.
The 2016 ISA All-Ireland Championship in the first weekend of October was one of the closest-fought ever seen, with at least four helms in with a chance in the final stages on the second day, as a good sailing breeze…
 Powering along. The Cookson 50 Mascalzone Latino using her canting keel to full advantage to carve out a clear win the Rolex Middle Sea Race 2016
Ace navigator and tactician Ian Moore, originally of Carrickfergus but long based in Cowes, is first choice as navigator/tactician for any serious international offshore campaign. Last year, he guided the RP 63 Lucky for a stunning win in the Transatlantic…
Stephen Tudor’s J/109 Sgrech in flying form off the “Snowdon Riviera”
In a year in which one of our 'Sailor of the Month' awards went to America’s irrepressible George David for his fabulous overall victory in the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2016 in Rambler 88, we see no reason at all…
Johnny Durcan is a lone star of the Laser class, but eight days ago he showed himself well able to become All-Ireland Junior Champion sailing two-handed in the TR 3.6 in Schull.
When one of the most hectic and important weekends of major championships in the Irish sailing calendar occurs precisely in the first two days of October, it’s easy to forget that September 2016 didn’t actually end until midnight on Friday.…
Olympic silver medalist Annalise Murphy is Afloat.ie 'Sailor of the Month' for August
A world-beating performance in the Rio Olympics, with a Silver Medal convincingly taken in the final excruciatingly tense double-scoring Medals Race, has elevated the National YC’s Annalise Murphy to global sailing superstardom. The final two countdown months to this great…
Round the World Irish sailing couple Myra Reid and Paraic O'Maolriada
These days when nearly every event of sailing significance seems to require a wave of publicity beforehand and a veritable tidal wave of that same publicity when it’s under way, it’s like a breath of fresh air when people just…
Ewan McMahon won Laser Radial youth silver on Dublin Bay
The conditions for the KBC Laser Radial Worlds in Dublin Bay could be tough. Not because the weather was severe, but because the wind kept taking off just when everyone hoped they’d settled into some good racing. Frustration takes it…
The crew of Joker 2 pictured in Crosshaven, winners of the inaugural Beaufort Cup
It was a real light-bulb moment when the initial notion of the brilliant idea which became the Beaufort Cup first surfaced. The concept of a series-within-a-series, a special programme for offshore racers crewed at least 50% by members of the…
Dave Cullen's J/109 Euro Car Parks
While the Volvo Round Ireland Race 2016 was the most international ever seen, some of the keenest racing was among the Irish boats in a fleet of such quality that just to secure a class win was to have made…
Rambler 88 skipper George David
There was something otherworldly and very special about the mighty silver bullet from the moment she arrived in Ireland, berthing quietly in Dun Laoghaire in the countdown to the Volvo Round Ireland Race at Wicklow on June 18th. George David’s…
Damian Foxall, Round Ireland record breaker
When three MOD 70s swept through the starting line at Wicklow on Saturday June 18th for the Volvo Round Ireland Race, so much work behind the scenes had gone into bringing this very special trio to Ireland’s premier offshore racing…
Dara O’Malley (in connacht T-shirt ) and his crew in on their Hunter 707 Seaword afte rtheir overall victory in the Silvers Marine Scottish Series at Tarbert this week
For the second month running, we have been able to draw on the categorisaton of Ireland’s sailors as either Olympic or non-Olympic in order to provide two “Sailors of the Month” in a way which accurately reflects the diversity of…
Round Ireland Record Breaker John Ryan at the wheel of his 'Team Hibernia' 100–mph powerboat
With his splendid achievement on Sunday of chopping six hours off the established Round Ireland powerboat record time, John Ryan is acclaimed as May’s Powerboat “Sailor of the Month” with a breakthrough which could stand for quite some time. Ryan…
Finn Lynch at the start of his “impossible Odyssey” in Dun Laoghaire in June 2015. He was to suffer many setbacks and frustrations before finally securing the Olympic Laser place on Wednesday May 18th 2016
Finn Lynch (20) of County Carlow is the Afloat.ie Olympic “Sailor of the Month” for May, following his arduous and often lonely journey to succeed in taking over Ireland’s already-secured place in the International Laser Class in the 2016 Olympics…